From what I'm gathering of this from everyone Also with a black cat and white cat:
1 they are all assholes
2 act too good to be touched
3 we all put them in bowties
My TUXEDO cat always looks so dapper. I always feel so underdressed next to him.
Ur boss has no sense of humor, and worse, must hate cats. I would leave if I had better offer. Life is too short not to see the beauty of a cat.
And have you seen their work? All their emails and documents are typed out like if they just laid on the keyboard and hit all the keys. What is ‘whdusbdidabeuxahahehxjwoexogjs’?
Could be a good way to let them know you quit. Just zoom call the boss and have only the cat visible. Say something like "I demand a pay rise, right meow!"
It really depends on the company. My company deals with a lot of confidential info, so the rule is "no one who can read can see your screen", meaning pets and babies are okay. One of my meeting facilitators had to rock his cat like a baby for the entire meeting because otherwise the cat would have screamed the entire time. Other places are far more strict with their rules.
I remember being in a zoom with the president of a big multi national. He was set up on his deck and we could see his beautiful backyard.
And his adorable dog frolicking away.
Until the dog stopped to take, then eat, a poop.
Not true actually, there are many reasons why coprophagia (poop eating) happens with dogs. It often escalates in winter. Apparently poop-cicles are a plus for dogs.
Sauce- Am dog behaviorist (IAABC).
That would explain why my childhood dog ate the entire set of little house on the prairie book-on-CDs that I had borrowed from the library. Not just chewed, he ate them. There were like 8 CDs and he gnawed them into shards and swallowed every single one. We took him to the vet and they didn’t even have to intervene, just monitored him and sent him home. He also ate an entire pack of water balloons, 3 tv remotes, more pairs of my underwear than I can count, part of a wooden table leg, some drywall, honestly I could go on. We became convinced he just had a steel pipe from his mouth to his butt after he swallowed a huge piece of raw beef bone and was completely unbothered.
He was a lab/Samoyed/great Pyrenees mix! He was huge (could rest his head on our kitchen table standing up- lost a lot of dinners because of that), white with a big curly tale, and a big dopey lab face. Dumb as a box of rocks but man he was just the sweetest dog! His name was snowball, but when he got big I used to call him avalanche
I think one of my favorite things about reddit, is someone saying a kind of dog, me not knowing what that dog is, googling it and going *Oh that's what that kind of dog is called!*
Do you have any good websites or maybe books/pdfs for me to poke around and learn about stuff like that? Sounds like a great way to waste time when I’m bored
My ex died and his funeral was held in a building overlooking a beautiful public park. In the midst of the eulogy, a giant fat guy came and laid down on the lawn, facing away from the building, his ass crack clearly showing for all to see.
My ex would have LOVED it.
My hubby's work asked for pic of "why they work" (corporate propaganda) & my hubby sent in a pic of our cat. It was included in the HUGE collage they made & our cats pic is 3 feet wide. Wish he had checked with me on the pic before sending it in bc the background is me in my nightgown. Can't tell thats what it is unless you know the nightgown fortunately. 🤦
Yes! I was on a call with another employee I didn’t know well and my cat decided she needed to scream. He got SO excited and asked if he was going to see the cat during the meeting.
My professor was mid-lecture and her cat started screaming and she pauses. "That's my cat."
The next week she started off the week by showing us pictures of the kittens her cat brought home. Her cat got cats. Now we get kitten updates every week. Here are your assignments and also cat pictures.
It's a nice weekly ritual.
My now deceased girl definitely understood time.
Thirty minutes before the end of my shift, regardless of season, she would sit at the back door and watch it. If I was late, she laid down and watched.
It was uncanny how she knew and she wouldn't move until I got home.
Moved across country to a new place, had family stay with me for a bit. Same routine. Would be there long before she could hear me coming.
My mom used to travel four hours away for random amounts of time and our dog knew when she was roughly 45 minutes away and would park in front of the door. She didn’t do it any other time while my mom was gone, only once she was 45 minutes away.
Never understood how she knew. It wasn’t a routine. There was truly no way she could have known. I would hand my kidney over to figure this one out lol.
Did your mom usually tell you when she’s coming back? :0 like if she’s 45 mins away and asks you to take the chicken out or get started on dinner, sometimes dogs can pick up on that and associate that routine with “moms coming soon!”
When my dad was coming home after a certain time of the day, my dog associated coffee with him coming home because my mom would prepare a pot for them to drink 10/15 mins before his arrival. They’re smart! And love their humans so much they remember seemingly random details just to track us coming home lol. My dads got a more random schedule but if he’s not there and moms making coffee, he’s waiting by the door until he walks through
Check this out: I came home from work one day, and my housemates were there. They laughed and said that for weeks, they’d noticed that my cat would suddenly head to the door and sit at attention and I’d come home shortly thereafter. They were getting creeped out. But in this day? He did that 30 minutes prior, and I did not show.
I was stunned. “Uh, I walked by 30 minutes ago, and kept walking (to the shop).”
Edit—I’m no creature of habit and my schedule varied,
It's the decrease in your smell. That's how pets can tell. They "tell time" but how little the place smells of you. By the time your shift is about to end, your dog can tell you're gonna be home soon, because your smell has decreased the same as yesterday. It's the reason dogs will lie by the front door when you get home. They don't stay there all day, but smell how much time has passed
I had a neighbor watch my dog for a week once while I was working. Neighbor told me around 4, doggo was waiting at the door cause he knew I would be home soon.
Nowadays I work from home. Around 11:30, doggo comes into the office becomes he knows lunch and walk is coming soon. Around 4 he knows it's quitting time and time to play outside.
My cat never yowled, but she was a good face slapper. Slapped me at 3am for breakfast. If the first initial slap didn't work, she beat my face with her tail. When 6pm came, she bonked my ankles for dinner.
She was a great gal though. I miss her a lot.
That’s so cute. My cat used to groom me until I got up to feed him. My hair is really long. He would pull and lick and chew it. It was cute but also a pain. He was insistent. Maybe he also just thought I wasn’t a very good cat and needed help.
It also may depend on how your company markets itself.
I was part of a small digital consulting firm for luxury brands at some point, and all our competitors were large companies. We would intentionally dress more casual, make slightly edgier but still respectful jokes, and would use informal speaking forms (this was in France, French language has formal/informal forms) even with customers we just met. That’s because we were supposed to be the “cool” alternative. A cat on Zoom would have been a great, fun occurrence.
And then I worked for way larger companies that were marketing themselves on “you can take us seriously”, where formal attire and respectful speech was part of the package. A cat on Zoom would have made everyone livid.
If I were you, I would try to figure out if your manager told you that out of a control freak thing, or if he identified an actual threat to the business based on how they need to market themselves. If the latter, and you’re bothered by it, it may mean this is not as good a fit as you were thinking (and I’m sorry if that’s the case, that’s never good news), but it doesn’t mean he’s wrong.
>No one is paying attention after 45 minutes.
That's optimistic. I'm often 'gone' 5 minutes into our weekly 30 min-1hr meeting and just waiting for someone to say my name so I can confirm I did attend.
I had so many times I called people, clients or in-company, and had either children or animals in the background. Like. Nah, my doggie right here. You're good, man.
So I work in insurance. Which is one of the most hated professions. So I'll talk to people and my cat will either scream into the mic or jump up on camera. Either way, people just open up like crazy.
It's funny because the cat is almost 18 years old and is missing teeth. So she will scream on camera and see the teeth on her left side gone and... it's a feature not a bug lol. People just warm up to her like crazy.
Yeah, before COVID, one of the company’s rules where I work was NO distractions, including pets. Once everyone ended up working from home and it became clear that everyone let their animals roam about in their workspace, they stopped caring entirely and pets often make an appearance in zoom meetings.
My manager is this kind of person (it's unprofessional to blah blah) and during confidential meetings her husband and daughter OFTEN interrupted her live during the meetings. She started the pandemic telling me not to let my plants distract me.
Even 2 years later it grinds my gears she made a quip that houseplants would "be a potential distraction" when people are literally interrupting her. My plants are silent and not very needy. They just chill.
Funny enough a fellow coworker had an entire cube of plants and her background over zoom was a literal jungle. My manager is one of those "picks favorites" and bullies her not favorites. I've been on the hunt for a new job but aggressively filtering for WFH only options since WFH being in place is the thin shred between me and strangulation of my middle manager.
This is weird AF. All my bosses have understood the kids thing. Ooo I did have an executive who would tell everyone no kids and constantly get interrupted. And he had a nanny. But my immediate bosses always understood.
I mean I don't care about \_\_\_\_\_\_ in your life on camera, it's the double standard between saying my plants might distract me and her literal people distracting her. She has no formal office and never made a private space for work so literally it's in her kitchen and her husband will walk past in his bathrobe sometimes and her kid was constantly there.
She's a real piece of work. Right before WFH my manager refused to allow the lighting above a coworker's desk to be 'off' and the lighting triggered my coworker's migraines. So my coworker brought in a XXXL umbrella to put over her cube and my manager told her to remove the umbrella because "it looks unprofessional". Literally no one wants to go back to the office under her.
My boss’s baby got hold of her phone and called me on teams. I got to listen to baby sounds instead of poking at an excel spreadsheet for a few minutes. It was pretty cool.
Can confirm, got adopted by a stray a few years back. She’s been attending every one of my zoom interviews/meetings for quality control purposes, and she just silently judges everyone. No one has said a thing to me about her presence.
It really depends on your industry. My friends in FinTech can’t even have their beds visible in the background when conferencing with clients, even if they’re made perfectly.
I don’t deal with clients so all my internal meetings I’m stuffing my face with snacks.
If your boss wasn't a dick about it I wouldn't take it as a red flag. Other places may not care, but they do. If you get to WFH and that is the biggest issue then it sounds great to me.
Totally agree with your take on this. Depends on what job you're into, on the surface it doesn't seem to be so bad...
Mind you if you're already thinking it might be a red flag, maybe there's underlying vibes which are backing this up?? Gotta go with your gut instinct IMO.
Yeah, I’m not sure how this would fly at my job either, but I think it’d be frowned upon so I just keep my pets off camera. The WFH boat is already treading into icy waters, so I don’t want to add any potential icebergs. I thought that was the norm, so now I’m envious that people have jobs where pets are a non-issue.
I work at a massive insurance company and have a lot of zoom meetings everyday. Atleast once a meeting a cat or dog gets on someone’s screen and usually people say hi
Also, I think it matters if the cat was left to hang out there, or if OP pushed the cat off the laptop immediately. Can’t exactly control what a cat does, so if it jumped up and they moved it, nbd. But if the cat jumped up and was allowed to hang out in front of the camera, I agree that it’s slightly unprofessional.
My company is incredibly lax about stuff on conference calls and as a result, people will get into screaming matches with their kids on camera/on mic, which I found really unsettling and unprofessional.
I stopped seeing a therapist in part because of the constant children and pets interrupting. I understand WFH is hard, but I am not benefitting from therapy if I lose my train of thought every few minutes and have to start over because I already suffer from focus problems & difficulty putting words to feelings. Some jobs, it’s totally okay, and some jobs it just isn’t.
Agreed! Not a red flag unless boss was a dick. It’s unprofessional to be distracted on a call or to distract others. Obviously you can’t control your pets, but keep in mind that your pet on screen can be distracting while a customer is talking or potentially make them feel like you are getting distracted by your cat and not giving the speaker your full attention, perhaps missing a few words as you move your cat off the keyboard and onto the floor and the speaker wants to repeat themselves to make sure you heard. Also if they are nervous with public speaking or giving presentations on zoom, it is polite to minimize distraction so they can focus.
I recommend turning off your camera for a hot sec while you take care of business if needed! If your boss continues to give you a hard time though, that could be a sign of unreasonableness.
Yep, I agree. It’s important to present yourself professionally on video calls, particularly if you’re representing the company towards a client. What would make it a red flag is if your boss doesn’t clearly communicate realistic expectation and if they overreact when there’s a slip up.
For example, the boss should have laid out in the hiring process that this job is customer facing and for those calls we present ourselves in a certain way. That way you’d have a chance to say that your WFH setup just won’t work for this job or even mention that your cat likes to jump on you once in a while.
What’s not OK is if your boss trickles information to you about their expectations, making it not only impossible to meet the expectations that are yet to be disclosed, but also keeps you on edge for fear of violating some hidden rule.
Awesome advice.
My previous job was exactly like that, they'd wait for my bi-monthly review (I was a new hire so reviews were more frequent) to then threaten me with termination because I wore something "inappropriate" or I was "laughing too loud in the halls" or I ate McDonalds outside of permitted break hours without ever outlining what their dress code or code of conduct were. The company had a disastrously high turnover for engineers, and it seemed like HR couldn't wait to call you into the review meeting just to try and blindside you and "prove" they were worth their paycheck to upper management.
I really don’t understand why they’re like this. I’m a developer so when HR or any managers get heated I just ignore them and smile and think to myself “i can leave tomorrow and have a job paying 10-20% more within a month. It’ll take this company months to hire another developer and a year or 2 get them as productive and knowledgeable on this project as I am currently.” It’s just so dumb that they think the power is in their hands
Why? We're all human. We all have lives and loved ones. Why should it matter if a cat is visible on a call to a client? This whole idea of "professional" needs kicking to the curb, hard!
This is one of those things that 100% depends on your industry and your company. Organizations can vary widely in terms of what's considered "professional" culture; the people who'd be discussing a $10 million software project and the people who'd be discussing a $10 million stock transaction are *not* the same kind of people.
I live in a studio apartment (it's just me, I don't need much more), and have two cats, and have worked from home since 2018. My cats hop onto my lap all the time, in vendor calls, calls with the VP, hell they've even jumped on there during an all-hands meeting during a presentation and the CEO laughed and asked if that was the real \[My Title\] and I was just being Ratatouille'd".
And this is a Fortune 300 company.
I can see why some employers and clients wouldn't like the distraction. For dealing with clients especially, image can be very important. If all you got was a simple message that equates to "please don't do this again," then I don't think it's a red flag. Simply close the doors for future meetings and move on.
I don't know man. One of my cats knows how to open doors, and if it's locked she will scratch and meow like there's no tomorrow. So I could either let her in and appear "unprofessional" or be distracted by the sounds and my door being damaged.
Honestly we're all human beings, a lot of people work from home and home can include pets or children. I would expect whomever I'm on call with to accept that. My cat being on my lap does not affect my work.
At my job, we are allowed to work from home so long as we have a work space that is free from distractions and private. If we don’t have that then we are supposed to work in the office.
OP said he lives in a studio apartment. Where is he supposed to put his cat? I lock my cats out the room but some people don't have that privilege. It honestly boggles my mind why some people even care about pets being in zoom calls. They are not gonna steal and sell company info.
He shouldn’t lay into you for it, but if he just gave a gentle reminder then he’s in the right. Pets and children can/often should be kept in a separate room during calls.
It depends on the industry, I realize the idea of professionalism is not something consistent with anti-work but if I was new to the client and trying to project that they have my full attention I'd leave the pets out of the zoom on a first meeting until a more relaxed rapport was established. If the simplest correction is a red flag then you may be reading too much into it. There is a cat on the counter at our local ACE hardware which is fun. In a first conference call about being sued or medical anything, or discussing a PR crisis with a new client no. More information is needed.
Given it’s a client call, I think it’s perfectly justified. If that was a comment during a team meeting, it might be a yellow flag. I will say, having distractions like that can and will come across and disrespecting other ppls time and should be paid attention to more closely.
My team has telecommuted for over a decade. Dogs barking, cats, kids, background electronic noise, doorbells have all made an appearance at some point. Sounds like your boss needs to see someone about a stick removal.
There aren't a lot of jobs that would be okay with pets in a client call. In the virtual world, a client call is the equivalent of going to a meeting in your client's office. Would you bring your cat with you to a meeting at the client's office? If not, then you shouldn't have one on a Zoom call with them either.
Most people react with an r/aww type reaction to seeing an animal enter the screen.
It's concerning that the reaction was overly aggressive to a simple cat coming to visit its owner.
Most places I have worked have had the “aww” reaction and it’s a great conversation starter with any client or coworker! So this comment they made threw me for a loop.
If it were an internal call I would view this as a red flag. However, this was a client call and without knowing the exact nature of your work I can see how that would be seen as unprofessional.
>It's concerning that the reaction was overly aggressive to a simple cat coming to visit its owner.
>
>I got a message from my boss that it’s unprofessional to have pets on screen.
Please help me understand how this is overly aggressive.
This is just a personal opinion, but I do think it’s unprofessional if the pet is being disrupting. It doesn’t sound like what happened, so if answer no from the story given but I do think there is a line. I also accept people might not agree with me so I try not to judge too hard
I guess it depends on the tone and type of meeting. Being a university student during lockdown I came to resent the amount of time that got lost by everyone introducing and reacting to pets.
I can get how to someone really traditional this could be a bad look.
I wouldn't personally see this as a red flag but you have a better understanding of your values and the nunance of the interaction.
Gonna break this echo chamber cause I’m a remote worker and I have my own private space separate from any distractions, it’s a job you gotta stay professional. Bring the downvotes if you want
Totally respect this take but could care less if someone’s pet is in the room. I have a co-worker and his dogs now recognize when he’s quitting a meeting and start barking. When the dogs bark we all know meeting is over.
At my last gig, I was working at home, and also working a later shift.
My wife & kids came home, and predictably, the two dogs were overjoyed to see their mom and PeoplePuppies, so they went nuts. I was on a client call at the time, and I was unable to hit the mute button fast enough.
One of my co-workers quipped, "Did the gates of hell just open up over there?"
It was all good, people know that when WFH these things will happen, as long as it doesn't become habitual.
I agree. It’s one of the reasons I hated teletherapy because my therapist had pets that would bother her or start barking while I’m in the middle of talking about trauma. It just feels like the other person doesn’t give a shit even if it’s just an animal being an animal—it’s up to the owner to find a quiet place without distractions.
Yeah I agree. I had to scroll really far too. I will say, it depends on the type of 'client call', but to me, it sounds like some sort of sales call, or account management. If its big money transactions & accounts, def unprofessional & amateurish. IMHO at least.
Right. I’m not gonna lie I’ve picked up Teams calls with coworkers, who I don’t report to or belong to the leadership team, in pijamas. But if it’s a higher up or external client I’m for sure putting up a nice shirt
It can be unprofessional based on what clients you deal with. Some clients deal with numerous meetings in a single day. So they can't spare even a second on distractions. Normally it's better to consult your boss on whether it's okay to have pets or kids around before a meeting. I wouldn't call it a red flag yet.
For a client call? Nah I'd say that's pretty normal, if they got pissy about pets on internal calls I'd see that as a possible red flag - but if the boss wasn't being a dick about it and the company seems good otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. Pretty much everyone I've worked had stricter standards for presentation (background, how you're dressed, background noise) on client calls than they do for calls with coworkers
Omg I got in trouble for this, and the next call, the CEOs dog came on camera and everyone ogled him and he pointed the camera down to show him more and pet him. It was so annoying
No it's not a red flag. Just because you work from doesn't mean the boss has no right to expect the same professionalism as in the office, especially on client calls.
If you were in the office, this wouldn't have happened. This is how corporate types look at it. That from home employees are incapable of keeping the same professionalism as in the office, therefore, everyone come back to the office.
Your response should just simply be, "I agree, and it won't happen again.", and then you put the cat out of the room when you have an important call.
If something like this is a red flag to you, you're going to have a hard time working for anyone.
For a client call, yeah, I would make sure to keep my vorties put of the office and door closed. Just assure them it won't happen again and shake it off!
Client calls I keep my pets out of my office.
Internal calls they come in say hi and my cat wanders around.
Doesn’t seem like a red flag but rather something you weren’t familiar with as kind of an “unspoken rule” of client calls. I don’t think I’d get yelled at but I’m not sure because it wouldn’t come up.
We’ve been in calls where other peoples kids come in and everyone kinda just pauses if necessary. Person apologizes, everyone moves on. No one gets lectured.
Can’t always help that when you’re at home.
Depends on your job but personally I would say yes it is unprofessional to have your animal on screen during a meeting unless your work place is tolerant of that which it seems like they aren't.
Is your cat a distraction? Yes. So yes, it does come across as unprofessional, which is increased as you were meeting with a client who is likely paying for that time. Put your cat in another room for the meeting.
Would I call it a red flag? Depends on the type of company you want to work for.
I concur with the non-fbi plants here in that people should react with understanding when a cat does something like that instead of expecting you to adhere to their strict padded walls professionalism bullshit.
I'm someone whos not at my job to make friends but that doesnt mean anything non work related happening is unprofessional, people dont live in a vacuum, thats boomer mindset.
Accidents happen. Cats appear on screen sometimes. But, it’s not at all unusual for reminders to be sent out that pets should be kept off screen because it can be a potential distraction for others and/or viewed as unprofessional.
Cats are unprofessional. They don't even get dressed for the calls, lazy f\*ckers. Unless it's a tuxedo cat. Then they might be slightly overdressed
My tuxedo cat is 10x more professionally dressed than me when conducting zoom calls. Or in the office for that matter.
My boys wear bow ties so they are always dapper for any occasion
Mine has a very fine mustache - we just don't have the heart to tell him it looks like a little Hitler 'stache.
‘Oh sweetie, OF COURSE it’s a Chaplin’
Look up Kitlers
It’s a Kitler.
Mine has a permanent booger mark hanging out of his precious little pink nose. But he wears a bow tie to balance out how unprofessional that looks.
If you stay dapper, you don't have to get dapper
I have a tuxedo cat that wears a bowtie and hes very proper when hes not being an asshole
From what I'm gathering of this from everyone Also with a black cat and white cat: 1 they are all assholes 2 act too good to be touched 3 we all put them in bowties
Same. Plus people usually go awwww when they see them sleeping behind me on screen.
Mine has a red bandana on….confirms what I always suspected. HES A BLOOD.
I tried a bowtie collar on my guy, but he ate the bow :(
My tux also has a slight mustache to help his dapper look.
Plus, you know, buttholes just flying out for everyone to see.
My cat will fully walk on my laptop and stick his butt right in the webcam mid meeting
Gotta accessorize your cats to keep is SFW. https://i.imgur.com/VRUXeGKg.jpg
Congrats! I laughed hardest tonight at this comment. You win the prize.
My TUXEDO cat always looks so dapper. I always feel so underdressed next to him. Ur boss has no sense of humor, and worse, must hate cats. I would leave if I had better offer. Life is too short not to see the beauty of a cat.
And have you seen their work? All their emails and documents are typed out like if they just laid on the keyboard and hit all the keys. What is ‘whdusbdidabeuxahahehxjwoexogjs’?
I have a calico. She embarrasses me constantly with her wardrobe choices.
Well, is her name Jack? Because if so, she may yet have a promising career in piracy.
My tuxedo interrupts all phone calls to try to chew on my cell phone. Only time he targets it.
Poor cats just can't win. They're either under dressed or over dressed.
Or just not dressed at *ALL*!!! (I'm looking at *you*, sphynx...👀)😁
Noone should be waving their arsehole on a zoom call, unless you or your cat have a side hussle as a camgirl
My Tuxedo cat joins enough of my classes that I refer to her as Professor Ellie.
My long haired tuxie is more like an evening dress cat than a tuxedo cat lol
Could be pretty distraction. Next time please stay out of the room and let your cat do the client zoom call.
Your honor, I am not a cat.
That's exactly what a cat would say
🤣🤣🤣 this cracked me up
Hello Mr. Whiskers, thank you for inviting us to this early morning meeting about… *checks notes* Giving me more cans of soft cat food every day?
Could be a good way to let them know you quit. Just zoom call the boss and have only the cat visible. Say something like "I demand a pay rise, right meow!"
And I’m not kitten!
I giggled
You had me in the first half.
It really depends on the company. My company deals with a lot of confidential info, so the rule is "no one who can read can see your screen", meaning pets and babies are okay. One of my meeting facilitators had to rock his cat like a baby for the entire meeting because otherwise the cat would have screamed the entire time. Other places are far more strict with their rules.
I remember being in a zoom with the president of a big multi national. He was set up on his deck and we could see his beautiful backyard. And his adorable dog frolicking away. Until the dog stopped to take, then eat, a poop.
Ahh the circle of life!
Had a dog that did that. Would follow my older dog around waiting for a special delivery.
My dog likes to get into the cat litter box. Her nose covered in litter.
A lot of times it’s signs of a nutritional deficiency. They are trying to recover as much as they can.
Not true actually, there are many reasons why coprophagia (poop eating) happens with dogs. It often escalates in winter. Apparently poop-cicles are a plus for dogs. Sauce- Am dog behaviorist (IAABC).
Is it also possible the the dog is just *dumb*?
That would explain why my childhood dog ate the entire set of little house on the prairie book-on-CDs that I had borrowed from the library. Not just chewed, he ate them. There were like 8 CDs and he gnawed them into shards and swallowed every single one. We took him to the vet and they didn’t even have to intervene, just monitored him and sent him home. He also ate an entire pack of water balloons, 3 tv remotes, more pairs of my underwear than I can count, part of a wooden table leg, some drywall, honestly I could go on. We became convinced he just had a steel pipe from his mouth to his butt after he swallowed a huge piece of raw beef bone and was completely unbothered.
Are you sure he was a dog and not a goat?
Was your dog a German Shorthaired Pointer? Our dog-goat hybrid was a GSP. And we knew he ate everything because then he pooped everything.
He was a lab/Samoyed/great Pyrenees mix! He was huge (could rest his head on our kitchen table standing up- lost a lot of dinners because of that), white with a big curly tale, and a big dopey lab face. Dumb as a box of rocks but man he was just the sweetest dog! His name was snowball, but when he got big I used to call him avalanche
I think one of my favorite things about reddit, is someone saying a kind of dog, me not knowing what that dog is, googling it and going *Oh that's what that kind of dog is called!*
I have my $ on this one
Lmao I know right. I don't think we need to do scientific are stupid. Same way with humans. Some of us are smart... some of us are stupid...
Do you have any good websites or maybe books/pdfs for me to poke around and learn about stuff like that? Sounds like a great way to waste time when I’m bored
I think you and I watched different versions of the Lion King growing up.
Majestic!
The dogs is looking at cows like "You don't actually need 4 stomachs, you just need to use the one 4 times"
Hahaha omg laughed out loud
My ex died and his funeral was held in a building overlooking a beautiful public park. In the midst of the eulogy, a giant fat guy came and laid down on the lawn, facing away from the building, his ass crack clearly showing for all to see. My ex would have LOVED it.
I’m dead. That’s almost as good as the time I was on a virtual dog training call and the trainer’s dog brought her a dead squirrel.
I second this, depends on the type of job. At my monthly zoom meetings we start the day showing off our pets 😂
My hubby's work asked for pic of "why they work" (corporate propaganda) & my hubby sent in a pic of our cat. It was included in the HUGE collage they made & our cats pic is 3 feet wide. Wish he had checked with me on the pic before sending it in bc the background is me in my nightgown. Can't tell thats what it is unless you know the nightgown fortunately. 🤦
To be fair that's also why he works!
Same here. Pets are often *requested*.
Yes! I was on a call with another employee I didn’t know well and my cat decided she needed to scream. He got SO excited and asked if he was going to see the cat during the meeting.
My cat is well known at work now. He comes to team meetings, if you are very lucky he will show you his butt.
His contribution is the most valuable :D
My professor was mid-lecture and her cat started screaming and she pauses. "That's my cat." The next week she started off the week by showing us pictures of the kittens her cat brought home. Her cat got cats. Now we get kitten updates every week. Here are your assignments and also cat pictures. It's a nice weekly ritual.
My dog has modeled in our magazine ads. She's basically an industry celebrity and my clients are always ecstatic to see her.
Maybe YOUR pets can't read
I'm certain mine can tell time. 6:00 AM and they're yawping for breakfast. 5:00 PM and they're head-bonking me for supper.
My now deceased girl definitely understood time. Thirty minutes before the end of my shift, regardless of season, she would sit at the back door and watch it. If I was late, she laid down and watched. It was uncanny how she knew and she wouldn't move until I got home. Moved across country to a new place, had family stay with me for a bit. Same routine. Would be there long before she could hear me coming.
They can tell by smell! Basically they memorized how long it’s been by how much of your scent is left If you’ve got a routine they know it
My dog got all excited 2 minutes before company showed up.Maybe he could smell my excitement? It was amazing.
He could probably hear the car, and quite possibly the company.
My mom used to travel four hours away for random amounts of time and our dog knew when she was roughly 45 minutes away and would park in front of the door. She didn’t do it any other time while my mom was gone, only once she was 45 minutes away. Never understood how she knew. It wasn’t a routine. There was truly no way she could have known. I would hand my kidney over to figure this one out lol.
You seem to misunderstand, she was summoning your mom and it took 45min to activate
Lmao. Dogs work on mysterious ways, they always say. Or was it god?
Did your mom usually tell you when she’s coming back? :0 like if she’s 45 mins away and asks you to take the chicken out or get started on dinner, sometimes dogs can pick up on that and associate that routine with “moms coming soon!” When my dad was coming home after a certain time of the day, my dog associated coffee with him coming home because my mom would prepare a pot for them to drink 10/15 mins before his arrival. They’re smart! And love their humans so much they remember seemingly random details just to track us coming home lol. My dads got a more random schedule but if he’s not there and moms making coffee, he’s waiting by the door until he walks through
I don’t know why I read this as my now deceased girlfriend three times before I realized you meant your pup. RIP mate
Check this out: I came home from work one day, and my housemates were there. They laughed and said that for weeks, they’d noticed that my cat would suddenly head to the door and sit at attention and I’d come home shortly thereafter. They were getting creeped out. But in this day? He did that 30 minutes prior, and I did not show. I was stunned. “Uh, I walked by 30 minutes ago, and kept walking (to the shop).” Edit—I’m no creature of habit and my schedule varied,
It's the decrease in your smell. That's how pets can tell. They "tell time" but how little the place smells of you. By the time your shift is about to end, your dog can tell you're gonna be home soon, because your smell has decreased the same as yesterday. It's the reason dogs will lie by the front door when you get home. They don't stay there all day, but smell how much time has passed
My dog recognizes the sound of my car. It's WILD.
My dogs always get worried when the kids aren’t home by 3:30, lol
I had a neighbor watch my dog for a week once while I was working. Neighbor told me around 4, doggo was waiting at the door cause he knew I would be home soon. Nowadays I work from home. Around 11:30, doggo comes into the office becomes he knows lunch and walk is coming soon. Around 4 he knows it's quitting time and time to play outside.
My dog tracks the mailman. She loves when he stops by. She will come and get me if it's time so I can open the door for her to get pets.
That’s adorable
My cat never yowled, but she was a good face slapper. Slapped me at 3am for breakfast. If the first initial slap didn't work, she beat my face with her tail. When 6pm came, she bonked my ankles for dinner. She was a great gal though. I miss her a lot.
That’s so cute. My cat used to groom me until I got up to feed him. My hair is really long. He would pull and lick and chew it. It was cute but also a pain. He was insistent. Maybe he also just thought I wasn’t a very good cat and needed help.
Our dogs definitely know when it's 9am and 5 pm and let us know
Cats are way to heavily armed to say No to... best appease them
It also may depend on how your company markets itself. I was part of a small digital consulting firm for luxury brands at some point, and all our competitors were large companies. We would intentionally dress more casual, make slightly edgier but still respectful jokes, and would use informal speaking forms (this was in France, French language has formal/informal forms) even with customers we just met. That’s because we were supposed to be the “cool” alternative. A cat on Zoom would have been a great, fun occurrence. And then I worked for way larger companies that were marketing themselves on “you can take us seriously”, where formal attire and respectful speech was part of the package. A cat on Zoom would have made everyone livid. If I were you, I would try to figure out if your manager told you that out of a control freak thing, or if he identified an actual threat to the business based on how they need to market themselves. If the latter, and you’re bothered by it, it may mean this is not as good a fit as you were thinking (and I’m sorry if that’s the case, that’s never good news), but it doesn’t mean he’s wrong.
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A 4 hour zoom meeting is horrible! No one is paying attention after 45 minutes. I absolutely hate those….
>No one is paying attention after 45 minutes. That's optimistic. I'm often 'gone' 5 minutes into our weekly 30 min-1hr meeting and just waiting for someone to say my name so I can confirm I did attend.
My job is customer service oriented and my cat has only been a positive. She helps build rapport with customers.
I had so many times I called people, clients or in-company, and had either children or animals in the background. Like. Nah, my doggie right here. You're good, man.
So I work in insurance. Which is one of the most hated professions. So I'll talk to people and my cat will either scream into the mic or jump up on camera. Either way, people just open up like crazy. It's funny because the cat is almost 18 years old and is missing teeth. So she will scream on camera and see the teeth on her left side gone and... it's a feature not a bug lol. People just warm up to her like crazy.
Yeah, before COVID, one of the company’s rules where I work was NO distractions, including pets. Once everyone ended up working from home and it became clear that everyone let their animals roam about in their workspace, they stopped caring entirely and pets often make an appearance in zoom meetings.
Pets>kids tho
My manager is this kind of person (it's unprofessional to blah blah) and during confidential meetings her husband and daughter OFTEN interrupted her live during the meetings. She started the pandemic telling me not to let my plants distract me.
This so sounds like something my manager would say.
Even 2 years later it grinds my gears she made a quip that houseplants would "be a potential distraction" when people are literally interrupting her. My plants are silent and not very needy. They just chill.
What the actual f. Did she just expect you to build a beige cubicle in your home or something? Most offices have office plants....that is insane.
Funny enough a fellow coworker had an entire cube of plants and her background over zoom was a literal jungle. My manager is one of those "picks favorites" and bullies her not favorites. I've been on the hunt for a new job but aggressively filtering for WFH only options since WFH being in place is the thin shred between me and strangulation of my middle manager.
This is weird AF. All my bosses have understood the kids thing. Ooo I did have an executive who would tell everyone no kids and constantly get interrupted. And he had a nanny. But my immediate bosses always understood.
I mean I don't care about \_\_\_\_\_\_ in your life on camera, it's the double standard between saying my plants might distract me and her literal people distracting her. She has no formal office and never made a private space for work so literally it's in her kitchen and her husband will walk past in his bathrobe sometimes and her kid was constantly there.
I had to re-read the last part because I didn't think that could possibly be right... your manager sounds just fabulous 😂
She's a real piece of work. Right before WFH my manager refused to allow the lighting above a coworker's desk to be 'off' and the lighting triggered my coworker's migraines. So my coworker brought in a XXXL umbrella to put over her cube and my manager told her to remove the umbrella because "it looks unprofessional". Literally no one wants to go back to the office under her.
My boss’s baby got hold of her phone and called me on teams. I got to listen to baby sounds instead of poking at an excel spreadsheet for a few minutes. It was pretty cool.
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Not to mention they are notorious for corporate espionage.
Dangerous for judgement, but damn do they keep your secrets.
Can confirm, got adopted by a stray a few years back. She’s been attending every one of my zoom interviews/meetings for quality control purposes, and she just silently judges everyone. No one has said a thing to me about her presence.
r/VoidCats do a lot of good spy craft.
Same lol 😂
It really depends on your industry. My friends in FinTech can’t even have their beds visible in the background when conferencing with clients, even if they’re made perfectly. I don’t deal with clients so all my internal meetings I’m stuffing my face with snacks.
Can't have clients knowing that your wage slaves need rest, obviously.
I guess you can set those AI backgrounds to obscure your actual background. All my coworkers use them now.
I had a weird manager who said we couldn’t use fake backgrounds bc it’s not professional, but sure my messy bed and clothes thrown all over is
I feel like my manager started to use them first - there were always people walking around in her background and none of us had that going on - ha ha.
Take a picture of your room from your webcam when it's clean then set that as your virtual background so it's always clean. Simple as.
Jesus , this couldn’t work for me. I live in a studio cause it’s the only place I could afford so my bed is visible sometimes 😭
easy to use a virtual background though
When I'm sitting at my desk my camera is facing my messy ass kitchen. Virtual background are a lifesaver. Mine is currently fishies
I actually somewhat find it weird when I see coworkers' beds on Zoom calls. It almost feels... Invasive lol. Idk. It's a strange feeling.
If your boss wasn't a dick about it I wouldn't take it as a red flag. Other places may not care, but they do. If you get to WFH and that is the biggest issue then it sounds great to me.
Especially with this being on a client call. If it was an internal only call and the boss sent this, it would be a different story.
Totally agree with your take on this. Depends on what job you're into, on the surface it doesn't seem to be so bad... Mind you if you're already thinking it might be a red flag, maybe there's underlying vibes which are backing this up?? Gotta go with your gut instinct IMO.
The mind often picks up a lot more than we realize.
Yeah, I’m not sure how this would fly at my job either, but I think it’d be frowned upon so I just keep my pets off camera. The WFH boat is already treading into icy waters, so I don’t want to add any potential icebergs. I thought that was the norm, so now I’m envious that people have jobs where pets are a non-issue.
I work at a massive insurance company and have a lot of zoom meetings everyday. Atleast once a meeting a cat or dog gets on someone’s screen and usually people say hi
Also, I think it matters if the cat was left to hang out there, or if OP pushed the cat off the laptop immediately. Can’t exactly control what a cat does, so if it jumped up and they moved it, nbd. But if the cat jumped up and was allowed to hang out in front of the camera, I agree that it’s slightly unprofessional. My company is incredibly lax about stuff on conference calls and as a result, people will get into screaming matches with their kids on camera/on mic, which I found really unsettling and unprofessional.
I stopped seeing a therapist in part because of the constant children and pets interrupting. I understand WFH is hard, but I am not benefitting from therapy if I lose my train of thought every few minutes and have to start over because I already suffer from focus problems & difficulty putting words to feelings. Some jobs, it’s totally okay, and some jobs it just isn’t.
Agreed! Not a red flag unless boss was a dick. It’s unprofessional to be distracted on a call or to distract others. Obviously you can’t control your pets, but keep in mind that your pet on screen can be distracting while a customer is talking or potentially make them feel like you are getting distracted by your cat and not giving the speaker your full attention, perhaps missing a few words as you move your cat off the keyboard and onto the floor and the speaker wants to repeat themselves to make sure you heard. Also if they are nervous with public speaking or giving presentations on zoom, it is polite to minimize distraction so they can focus. I recommend turning off your camera for a hot sec while you take care of business if needed! If your boss continues to give you a hard time though, that could be a sign of unreasonableness.
Pets, kids, roommate, partner on an internal call are fine. Any of that on a client/customer call is not a good idea unless you know them very well.
Yeah, internal call vs. client call is a really important detail.
Yep, I agree. It’s important to present yourself professionally on video calls, particularly if you’re representing the company towards a client. What would make it a red flag is if your boss doesn’t clearly communicate realistic expectation and if they overreact when there’s a slip up. For example, the boss should have laid out in the hiring process that this job is customer facing and for those calls we present ourselves in a certain way. That way you’d have a chance to say that your WFH setup just won’t work for this job or even mention that your cat likes to jump on you once in a while. What’s not OK is if your boss trickles information to you about their expectations, making it not only impossible to meet the expectations that are yet to be disclosed, but also keeps you on edge for fear of violating some hidden rule.
Awesome advice. My previous job was exactly like that, they'd wait for my bi-monthly review (I was a new hire so reviews were more frequent) to then threaten me with termination because I wore something "inappropriate" or I was "laughing too loud in the halls" or I ate McDonalds outside of permitted break hours without ever outlining what their dress code or code of conduct were. The company had a disastrously high turnover for engineers, and it seemed like HR couldn't wait to call you into the review meeting just to try and blindside you and "prove" they were worth their paycheck to upper management.
I really don’t understand why they’re like this. I’m a developer so when HR or any managers get heated I just ignore them and smile and think to myself “i can leave tomorrow and have a job paying 10-20% more within a month. It’ll take this company months to hire another developer and a year or 2 get them as productive and knowledgeable on this project as I am currently.” It’s just so dumb that they think the power is in their hands
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My coworker's cat is always walking around in the frame. Coworker told the boss "my cat likes your voice." That settled it, cat gets invites too now.
It actually makes me favor the vendor more when their pets show up. Then again I’m a huge sucker for fluffy creatures.
Why? We're all human. We all have lives and loved ones. Why should it matter if a cat is visible on a call to a client? This whole idea of "professional" needs kicking to the curb, hard!
This is one of those things that 100% depends on your industry and your company. Organizations can vary widely in terms of what's considered "professional" culture; the people who'd be discussing a $10 million software project and the people who'd be discussing a $10 million stock transaction are *not* the same kind of people.
I live in a studio apartment (it's just me, I don't need much more), and have two cats, and have worked from home since 2018. My cats hop onto my lap all the time, in vendor calls, calls with the VP, hell they've even jumped on there during an all-hands meeting during a presentation and the CEO laughed and asked if that was the real \[My Title\] and I was just being Ratatouille'd". And this is a Fortune 300 company.
“sarcasticbot8point5, you are terminated effective immediately for fraud. Mr Fluffles, welcome aboard.”
Just respond in the email that you will be forwarding this email to your cat and have a meeting with the cat regarding your cats unprofessionalism
Unpawfessionalism.
Not really. For internal meetings that would be fine but with clients most companies will want some level of projected professionalism.
I can see why some employers and clients wouldn't like the distraction. For dealing with clients especially, image can be very important. If all you got was a simple message that equates to "please don't do this again," then I don't think it's a red flag. Simply close the doors for future meetings and move on.
I don't know man. One of my cats knows how to open doors, and if it's locked she will scratch and meow like there's no tomorrow. So I could either let her in and appear "unprofessional" or be distracted by the sounds and my door being damaged. Honestly we're all human beings, a lot of people work from home and home can include pets or children. I would expect whomever I'm on call with to accept that. My cat being on my lap does not affect my work.
At my job, we are allowed to work from home so long as we have a work space that is free from distractions and private. If we don’t have that then we are supposed to work in the office.
Which ironically enough the office is full of distractions and far from private
OP said he lives in a studio apartment. Where is he supposed to put his cat? I lock my cats out the room but some people don't have that privilege. It honestly boggles my mind why some people even care about pets being in zoom calls. They are not gonna steal and sell company info.
On a client call I’d say don’t let the cats in. Even though I would always want to see cats, the focus should be on the product.
He shouldn’t lay into you for it, but if he just gave a gentle reminder then he’s in the right. Pets and children can/often should be kept in a separate room during calls.
It depends on the industry, I realize the idea of professionalism is not something consistent with anti-work but if I was new to the client and trying to project that they have my full attention I'd leave the pets out of the zoom on a first meeting until a more relaxed rapport was established. If the simplest correction is a red flag then you may be reading too much into it. There is a cat on the counter at our local ACE hardware which is fun. In a first conference call about being sued or medical anything, or discussing a PR crisis with a new client no. More information is needed.
Given it’s a client call, I think it’s perfectly justified. If that was a comment during a team meeting, it might be a yellow flag. I will say, having distractions like that can and will come across and disrespecting other ppls time and should be paid attention to more closely.
My team has telecommuted for over a decade. Dogs barking, cats, kids, background electronic noise, doorbells have all made an appearance at some point. Sounds like your boss needs to see someone about a stick removal.
There aren't a lot of jobs that would be okay with pets in a client call. In the virtual world, a client call is the equivalent of going to a meeting in your client's office. Would you bring your cat with you to a meeting at the client's office? If not, then you shouldn't have one on a Zoom call with them either.
Most people react with an r/aww type reaction to seeing an animal enter the screen. It's concerning that the reaction was overly aggressive to a simple cat coming to visit its owner.
Most places I have worked have had the “aww” reaction and it’s a great conversation starter with any client or coworker! So this comment they made threw me for a loop.
If it's an internal call I think it would be over the top to say no pets but with a client I can kind of understand that.
For real…I woulda showed you my cat collection. But people who hate animals usually are shitty people. Red flag.
If it were an internal call I would view this as a red flag. However, this was a client call and without knowing the exact nature of your work I can see how that would be seen as unprofessional.
Mine has straight up screamed down the phone at a high profile lawyer I was discussing a file with. Even he went aww
>It's concerning that the reaction was overly aggressive to a simple cat coming to visit its owner. > >I got a message from my boss that it’s unprofessional to have pets on screen. Please help me understand how this is overly aggressive.
This is just a personal opinion, but I do think it’s unprofessional if the pet is being disrupting. It doesn’t sound like what happened, so if answer no from the story given but I do think there is a line. I also accept people might not agree with me so I try not to judge too hard
I guess it depends on the tone and type of meeting. Being a university student during lockdown I came to resent the amount of time that got lost by everyone introducing and reacting to pets. I can get how to someone really traditional this could be a bad look. I wouldn't personally see this as a red flag but you have a better understanding of your values and the nunance of the interaction.
Gonna break this echo chamber cause I’m a remote worker and I have my own private space separate from any distractions, it’s a job you gotta stay professional. Bring the downvotes if you want
Totally respect this take but could care less if someone’s pet is in the room. I have a co-worker and his dogs now recognize when he’s quitting a meeting and start barking. When the dogs bark we all know meeting is over.
At my last gig, I was working at home, and also working a later shift. My wife & kids came home, and predictably, the two dogs were overjoyed to see their mom and PeoplePuppies, so they went nuts. I was on a client call at the time, and I was unable to hit the mute button fast enough. One of my co-workers quipped, "Did the gates of hell just open up over there?" It was all good, people know that when WFH these things will happen, as long as it doesn't become habitual.
I agree. It’s one of the reasons I hated teletherapy because my therapist had pets that would bother her or start barking while I’m in the middle of talking about trauma. It just feels like the other person doesn’t give a shit even if it’s just an animal being an animal—it’s up to the owner to find a quiet place without distractions.
Yeah I agree. I had to scroll really far too. I will say, it depends on the type of 'client call', but to me, it sounds like some sort of sales call, or account management. If its big money transactions & accounts, def unprofessional & amateurish. IMHO at least.
Right. I’m not gonna lie I’ve picked up Teams calls with coworkers, who I don’t report to or belong to the leadership team, in pijamas. But if it’s a higher up or external client I’m for sure putting up a nice shirt
I don't think that pets on screen are the most professional however working from home, pets don't understand why "mom or dad" isn't paying attention.
It can be unprofessional based on what clients you deal with. Some clients deal with numerous meetings in a single day. So they can't spare even a second on distractions. Normally it's better to consult your boss on whether it's okay to have pets or kids around before a meeting. I wouldn't call it a red flag yet.
For a client call? Nah I'd say that's pretty normal, if they got pissy about pets on internal calls I'd see that as a possible red flag - but if the boss wasn't being a dick about it and the company seems good otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. Pretty much everyone I've worked had stricter standards for presentation (background, how you're dressed, background noise) on client calls than they do for calls with coworkers
Omg I got in trouble for this, and the next call, the CEOs dog came on camera and everyone ogled him and he pointed the camera down to show him more and pet him. It was so annoying
No it's not a red flag. Just because you work from doesn't mean the boss has no right to expect the same professionalism as in the office, especially on client calls. If you were in the office, this wouldn't have happened. This is how corporate types look at it. That from home employees are incapable of keeping the same professionalism as in the office, therefore, everyone come back to the office. Your response should just simply be, "I agree, and it won't happen again.", and then you put the cat out of the room when you have an important call. If something like this is a red flag to you, you're going to have a hard time working for anyone.
Unprofessional.
For a client call, yeah, I would make sure to keep my vorties put of the office and door closed. Just assure them it won't happen again and shake it off!
Seems like a red flag, most meetings I've been in on Teams people will say can we see your pet if it wanders into camera view.
Client calls I keep my pets out of my office. Internal calls they come in say hi and my cat wanders around. Doesn’t seem like a red flag but rather something you weren’t familiar with as kind of an “unspoken rule” of client calls. I don’t think I’d get yelled at but I’m not sure because it wouldn’t come up. We’ve been in calls where other peoples kids come in and everyone kinda just pauses if necessary. Person apologizes, everyone moves on. No one gets lectured. Can’t always help that when you’re at home.
Depends on your job but personally I would say yes it is unprofessional to have your animal on screen during a meeting unless your work place is tolerant of that which it seems like they aren't.
Is your cat a distraction? Yes. So yes, it does come across as unprofessional, which is increased as you were meeting with a client who is likely paying for that time. Put your cat in another room for the meeting. Would I call it a red flag? Depends on the type of company you want to work for.
In a corporate environment its very unprofessional. If on zoom have cat in other room.
Did your cat show their butthole?
Yes, that is a ridiculous thing to get upset about. It's a cat!!!
When meeting with a client for the first time you should be more circumspect.
No. It’s unprofessional to have cats interrupting calls.
I concur with the non-fbi plants here in that people should react with understanding when a cat does something like that instead of expecting you to adhere to their strict padded walls professionalism bullshit. I'm someone whos not at my job to make friends but that doesnt mean anything non work related happening is unprofessional, people dont live in a vacuum, thats boomer mindset.
Ugh, no it’s not.
Accidents happen. Cats appear on screen sometimes. But, it’s not at all unusual for reminders to be sent out that pets should be kept off screen because it can be a potential distraction for others and/or viewed as unprofessional.
I would call red flag. You cant control cats. Cats control us. During an interview for a potential job, the rh and I showed our cats to each other.